Things You'll Need:
- Spray Bottles
- Chilocorus Nigritus
- Lindorus Lophanthae
- Horticultural Oils
- Pyrethrin
- Insecticidal Soaps
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Step 1
Know what you're looking for. Scales are insects with piercing/sucking mouth parts. Female scale insects look like small (1/10 to 1/5 inch), oval, legless bumps. The males are minute yellow-winged insects, and the larvae resemble small mealybugs.
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Step 2
Identify scale insects by looking on the undersides of leaves and around leaf joints. Scale-damaged plants look withered and sickly and may have sticky sap or a black fungus on the leaves and stems.
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Step 3
Move an infested plant to isolate it from the rest of your houseplant collection. Scale insects are invasive and will infest other plants.
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Step 4
Remove scale insects with a twig or your fingernail. They will scrape off of plant tissue easily.
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Step 5
Wash infested plants with a soap/oil mixture if scraping alone doesn't do the job. Mix 1/2 tsp. insecticidal soap, 1/4 tsp. horticultural oil into 1 qt. of warm water. Wash the leaves individually with the soap/oil mixture. Rinse well. There are also numerous chemical products available for the control of mealybugs.
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Step 6
Purchase and release a natural predator called Chilocorus nigritus or Lindorus lophanthae for serious infestations. Place the insects directly on the infested plant. Once they have consumed the scale, the predators will simply die from lack of food in the indoor environment.
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Step 7
Spray with pyrethrin as a last resort. Pyrethrin is an organic pesticide made from chrysanthemums.
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Step 8
Be diligent - examine infested plants for evidence of new scale every day. It may take a while, but you will win this war!


















Comments
knippakid said
on 11/12/2008 I'm not sure about scale but, if this helps, I DO know that humans can become infested with fleas????? I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!!!
Does your shampoo rid your scalp of the scale? I ask, as soap is one of the treatments for scale. I use soap on my plants because I am DEATHLY allergic to all chemicals, no matter what used for. It works pretty well but, I have to keep re-treating.
horselady at cowboydj@sbcglobal.net
cbechen said
on 10/15/2008 Scale seems to be spreading throughout the plants in my house which number around 40 and include everything from orchids & African violets to jades and a Norfolk pine. Is there a simple way to rid them of this nasty pest? Please reply to cbechen@earthlink.net
susan1024 said
on 4/28/2007 I live in the Caribbean where our houseplants are constantly prone to getting scale. We have several plants in our family room and I have noticed the same type of scale on my scalp over the past year. Is it possible for this scale to travel from plants to humans in a very close environment? Please reply to SCL1024@hotmail.com
Thank you